ON ACROSS THE MILES

I was in my first year of Bible College at Apostolic Bible Institute in St. Paul Minnesota.  It was 1978. 

One afternoon, while working at Budget Rent-A-Car at the Minneapolis Airport, my boss, Mr. Larson, asked if any of us guys wanted to take a fleet of cars to Fargo, North Dakota on Friday. He said it would put another $50. on our pay check if anyone wanted to go. It would mean skipping classes on Friday. 

There were eight of us who volunteered. Three of us were from the Bible School and the rest were just other guys who worked for the company. Now Fargo was about four hours away from Minneapolis.  

So that Friday we all arrived at the Budget terminal at 6 o’clock in the morning. We were all assigned to our individual cars.  It so happened that we were delivering seven brand new Chevy Camaro’s. I was given a bright red one with silver flames on the hood!  WOW!  I remember saying to one of the other guys, I think we’re gonna have a fun day!! He agreed! Ha! 

The eighth car in our fleet was a Chevy Caprice station wagon.  This would be the common car that we would all return to Minneapolis in later that evening. Once we had all the cars fuelled up and ready to go it was about 7 o’clock. And as our eight vehicles hit Interstate 94 it wasn’t long before we were cruising at wonderful speeds of 70, sometimes 80 and once in a while 90 miles per hour. Shhhh! Don’t say anything to my mom! I don’t need any friction today! Ha! Ha!  After all, it was many years ago and there has to be a statute of limitations preventing any recourse from her! 

We arrived safely, thank the Lord, into Fargo at about 11:30. We only stopped long enough to park the Camaro’s and then we all piled into the Caprice station wagon for our trip back to Minneapolis.  

Now this is where the story takes on a whole different atmosphere. Three Bible school students and five unsaved guys in one vehicle!  As I recall, the Caprice had a folding rumble seat in the very back of the car that faced the back window. That’s where one other student and I ended up. The other six guys including the other student sat in the regular passenger seats. We hadn’t gone very far from Fargo when all of a sudden we took an exit. I watched as our car pulled into a liquor store and a couple of the unsaved guys ran in and came out loaded up with several cases of beer. 

The next few hours were perhaps some of the most frightening hours of my life. During that course of time one of the unsaved guys introduced a bag of marijuana. The smoke that filled the car was perhaps the worst smell I had ever smelled in my life. It literally made me feel sick to my stomach!  Please understand, I was raised in a Pastor’s home all my life and was never exposed to that sort of lifestyle. Not even at school! Thank God! 

I remember that we were travelling at a high rate of speed...nothing compared to the trip up to Fargo. The car swerved from time to time across the lanes. I turned around several times to see just how fast we were travelling. Each time I looked, the needle was pointing straight downward at about 6 o’clock with the needle completely buried. That means we were going in excess of 115 to 120 miles per hour and we did this steadily from Fargo all the way to St. Cloud, Minnesota, normally a three hour drive. It gives me shivers as I think about it now! I remember the driver of the car was so high and intoxicated that I was literally terrified!  Frightened beyond words!  I still have trouble riding in the passenger’s seat today!  When we were about four miles outside of St. Cloud, we once again took an exit and the driver drove directly to a liquor store.  It was at this stop that I said to myself and the Lord, “I’ve had enough! God, please get me out of this car!” I remember asking to be let out of the car and said I had to go to the bathroom. I made my way over behind the building as though I was just going to relieve myself.  But once I got out of site of the car I ran like a ‘mad-man’ and found myself in the middle of a trailer park. I remember crawling underneath the porch of a mobile home with my heart pounding so hard I could hardly breathe! I also remember the driver hollering for me and cursing because I was not returning to the car. They wanted to get going and I was holding them up. They then proceeded to drive around and around, up and down every street of the trailer park cursing and hollering my name. This went on for so long until finally they gave up on me and left.  I knew this made them so mad, that if I had shown my face I would have perhaps received the beating of my life! 

I remember laying under that porch for the longest time crying and pleading with the Lord to help me. I was over 2000 miles from my home in Hoyt, New Brunswick and Oh! How I wished I was there! I didn’t know where I was nor did I know exactly how far I was from St. Paul. I recall staying there for a very long time. 

Once I felt it was safe, I crawled out from under the porch and began walking.  I walked for what seemed to be many miles until I came to a sign that said, “Welcome to St. Cloud, Minnesota.” Once inside the city limits I remember searching until I found a phone booth.  I didn’t know anyone in that city, so I began looking through the listing of churches in the yellow pages. I found a Pentecostal church in the listings and took note that that the address was 301 7^th street avenue and I was on a double digit avenue.  I do remember that I still had a very long walk ahead of me. Since I didn’t have a dime on me, I wasn’t able to make a call. I recall it got dark as I walked along until late that evening when I came to the street where the church was located. As I walked closer to the church all the lights were on and it appeared that they had been having a service and it had just ended.  I knew I didn’t smell very nice and I was reluctant to go in but I knew I had to. 

As I stepped into the foyer I was greeted by an older man who said to me, “Can I help you?” I said, yes, I need to speak with the Pastor. He said, “Just a moment and I will get him.” In a minute or two the Pastor came to where I was and asked me if he could help me.  I said, “I am from a Bible School in St. Paul and I need to get there tonight, somehow.”  He said, “What’s the name of the Bible School?”  I said, “Apostolic Bible Institute.”  He said, “Stay right there, I’ll be right back.” I had no idea what he was doing.  Within a couple minutes he returned and said there will be a car outside in just a few minutes with someone you’ll want to meet!”  I said, “Okay.” So I stepped out of the church onto the sidewalk and waited.  Within a few minutes a small car, a Monza, pulled up to the curb. I was startled and shocked as I looked at the person in the driver’s seat.  It was the President of my Bible College, Bro. Robert Sabin!!  It turns out that he was there at that very church that very evening speaking at a rally and when he left the church after the service he remembered that he had left his topcoat at the pastor’s home and had to go and get it.  The pastor had intercepted him by telephone and got word to him to come back to the church before leaving for St. Paul.  

Now folks...only God can orchestrate something like that!  The Bible says that, “There hath no temptation (or trial) taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted (or tested) above that ye are able; but will with the temptation (trial) also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” That is not the end of the story!  There is another twist to this story that you can read on my blog entitled, ACROSS THE MILES PART 2! SRR